It would be a wild understatement to say that Hollywood likes to play it
safe. The majority of mainstream movies aim for the middle and even when they
offer emotions, things never get too extreme. Sure, plenty of "dark" movies are
made, but a lot of things work out in the end or, even if they don't, we somehow
feel separated from it. It's rare that we see a movie which doesn't seem to mind
hitting the audience over the head with depressing moments and even wandering
into a place which could be called bleak. This happens in Aftermath, a
movie which is so familiar that it's somewhat surprising.

Roman Melynk (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a hard-working, mild-mannered
construction supervisor. As the film opens, he's quite buoyant, as his wife and
daughter are returning from a trip to Europe. He heads for the airport, where
he's taken aside and lead to an office. The story then shifts to Jacob Bonanos
(Scoot McNairy), an air-traffic controller. While left alone in the control
tower, Jacob must deal with multiple planes at once, running back and forth
between screens. We then learn that two plans collided and Roman's family was
aboard one of them. The film then continues to follow the two men. Roman finds
himself in a daze, the grief consuming his life. He rejects the airline's offer
for help and sits at home by himself. Meanwhile, Jacob is labeled a murderer,
and finds himself alienated from his wife and son (Maggie Grace & Judah Nelson).
As Jacob attempts to put his life back together, Roman finds himself more and
more obsessed with the accident and what he can do to set things right.

Obviously, Schwarzenegger isn't the movie star that he was thirty years ago,
but he does continue to work. However, I was still surprised to how Aftermath
seemingly came out of nowhere. Maggie Grace and Scoot McNairy and the kid who
played Ron Burgundy's son may not be household names, but they're recognizable,
so this almost qualifies for my "I've heard of these people, why haven't I heard
of this movie?" list. In a world where we are bombarded by more movies than ever
due to home video, on-demand, and streaming services, it's not 100% surprising
that a movie featuring a well-known actor could just suddenly show up like this.
What is surprising is that Aftermath is actually pretty good.

While Aftermath presents a semi-novel story, it's the film's approach
which makes it work. Screenwriter Javier Gullon has given the story a structure
which helps to circumvent the familiarity of the some of the movie. As note
above, the first act is split into two distinct sections. We meet Roman and
Jacob individually in what appears to be separate stories (although, the fact
that Roman was pulled aside at the airport let's us know that something is up).
Following this first part, the film follows them individually as they both deal
with this tragedy in their own way. The interesting thing is how they parallel
-- Roman lost his family and stopped going to work, while Jacob lost his job and
became alienated from his family. Eventually, we know that these two stories are
going to intersect, the question is, how? When that intersection comes, it is
quite shocking and Director Elliot Lester does a good of throwing off of the
scent.

Even with this twist, the bulk of Aftermath comes across as a riff on
things which we've seen before. The other thing which sets the movie apart is
the tone. Obviously, any movie which opens with a plane crash probably isn't a
comedy, but Aftermath has the guts to keep spiraling downward showing how
this event effected these two men. The very end may offer a slight glimmer of
hope, but most of it is quite dark. As for Schwarzenegger, it's interesting how
he's taken such a turn to drama in recent years. With this film and

Maggie,
he seems to be atoning for the ridiculous movies he made in the 80s. However,
there's no atoning for Arnold's wardrobe here. Who picked out those clothes?
Cosby sweaters aside, Aftermath is a solid drama which isn't afraid to
take things (almost) to the extreme.

Aftermath gives me yet another reason to not travel on Blu-ray Disc
courtesy of Lionsgate. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the Disc
contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 27 Mbps. The image
is sharp and clear, showing no overt grain and no defects from the source
materials. The colors look good, although we don't get many bright tones here,
and the image is never overly dark or bright. The level of detail is good, as if
the depth. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz
and an average of 3.6 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects.
The track is an exercise in loud and soft. There are many quiet scenes, which
will suddenly be interrupted by a flashback of the plane going down. The plane
sounds fill the rear speakers and drive the subwoofer. We also get some notable
stereo effects with sounds coming from off-screen.

The Aftermath Blu-ray Disc contains only a few extras. We begin with
an AUDIO COMMENTARY from Director Elliot Lester and Producer Eric Watson. We
then have "Interviews with Director Elliot Lester and Director of Photography
Pieter Vermeer" (7 minutes) in which the two (who are interviewed separately)
discuss the story and the look of the film. The final extra is a TRAILER for the
film.